​Ackerberg wants to 'urbanize' Calhoun Square, focus on local tenants

By John Vomhof Jr. – Staff reporter/broadcaster, Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal

Mar 11, 2014, 2:11pm CDTUpdatedMar 11, 2014, 2:42pm CDT

Minneapolis developer Stuart Ackerberg, who expects to close on his acquisition of Uptown's Calhoun Square in early April, plans to renovate the shopping center and attempt to attract more local tenants.

The seller, New York-based investment firm BlackRock Inc., bought Calhoun Square for $47.3 million in 2007. The company invested millions of dollars into an expansion and efforts to attract new tenants such as H&M, L.A. Fitness and CB2, but Ackerberg said he may actually undo some of those recent changes.

"Right now, when you walk into that center, it's fairly vanilla as far as how it's been repositioned," said Ackerberg, who is founder, owner and CEO of The Ackerberg Group in Minneapolis. "It looks more like a regional mall you could find anywhere in the country, so our focus will be on trying to reurbanize the center and that may involve deconstructing some of the improvements that the current owner has already put into it to make it much more urban and inviting."

While much of BlackRock's efforts were focused on attracting national tenants, Ackerberg said he will "welcome with wide open arms local and regional tenants" as he seeks to fill the remaining spaces, including a highly visible restaurant space that formerly was occupied by Figlio, Il Gatto and Prime Bar. The 170,000-square-foot center is 88 percent leased.

"The current owner has really focused exclusively on national-credit tenants, I think perhaps to the detriment of the center by not going after more of those local and regional tenants," Ackerberg said. "The strategy, I'm guessing, was that the more national tenancy and credit they have, perhaps the higher purchase price they'd be able to generate. But, at the end of the day, I don't know that it created the most dynamic tenant mix possible for the center and the community."

Ackerberg Group also wants to revitalize a pedestrian thoroughfare along Girard Avenue between Calhoun Square and the adjacent parking ramp, similar to what it has done with the art park at its MoZaic office building.

Ackerberg Group also will have an opportunity for future development at a vacant 28,000-square-foot parcel at 1301 Lake St. W.

"I think that will be an exciting aspect of the project as well," Ackerberg said. "What should go on that site and how will it add to the vitality of Calhoun Square and the greater Uptown area? … We have lots of dreams, but nothing that we've really taken to that next level."

Ackerberg, who has been outbid for the property twice before, declined to comment on the terms of the deal, saying only that he felt it was "an attractive purchase price."

By John Vomhof Jr. – Staff reporter/broadcaster, Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal